1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector and a printed circuit board connected to the connector. In particular, the invention relates to a connector for flat cable that is capable of connecting a flat cable to a printed circuit board without soldered connections, and a printed circuit board connected to the connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most of the conventional connectors for flat cable are used as a male or female connector through a pitch conversion substrate by crimping a conductor of a flat cable to a plurality of terminals incorporated in a housing.
For example, there is a mode where a plurality of signal contacts and ground buses are arranged in parallel to each other in the longitudinal direction of a housing and each of the ground buses has a ground conductor crimping slot that is programmed in advance and a bypass slot (see Patent Document 1).
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10-335013
Patent Document 1 discloses a mode where a bypass slot accepts a signal conductor of a flat cable without crimping, and after the completion of crimping and termination, the signal conductor of a flat cable and a ground conductor are arranged on the same surface.
There is another mode where a plurality of holes are provided at one end of a housing, a hole communicated with the holes in common is provided at the other end, and terminals are inserted into these holes (see Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H11-251007
Patent Document 2 discloses a mode where each terminal has a crimping slit part in a hole side and a male contact part to be brought into contact with a terminal of a counterpart connector, the center positions of the terminals are arranged so that the arrangement pitches of the crimping slit parts are different from the arrangement pitches of the contact parts, the crimping slit parts and the contact parts of the terminals are formed like flat plates, and the mutually connecting parts of the crimping slit parts and the contact parts are curved so as to be parallel to each other and overlap in steps.
Such a conventional connector for flat cable requires a receiving jig such as a socket at a circuit board side to be connected. As another mode, soldered connection is required to connect a connector pin to a circuit board to be connected. In the case of soldered connection, the use of a material containing a biologically and environmentally harmful substance tends to be restricted, and it is required to review components and usage of solder that is a mixture of tin and lead.
In addition, it is important to reduce the number of mounted components and mount operations of a connector in order to achieve shorter delivery times and cost savings in view of the mass production process.